President’s Memo

Posted on January 2, 2014 in ATSC News

Preparing The Future –

As we make the transition to a new year, I think it’s fair to say that ATSC is hitting its stride with all pistons firing on a number of projects.  2013 was a great year, and there’s a lot more to come in 2014.

The start of a new year is a logical time to take stock of accomplishments over the past year and to look forward with a sense of anticipation and improvement.   2013 will certainly be remembered as year of intense activity for ATSC, as we pursued both enhancements to the existing digital TV standard and began looking ahead to future requirements.

Technology Group 1 (TG1) focused on what we dubbed “ATSC 2.0,” the backwards-compatible enhancements to the current transmission standard that are designed to add Internet-related features, advanced video coding, conditional access, and enhanced service guides for viewers.  Non-real-time content delivery will also be supported.

We’ve been fortunate to have the leadership of Triveni’s Rich Chernock on TG1, who is succeeded by Michael Dolan, sponsored by Nielsen, as Rich takes on TG3 the leadership of Technology Group 3 (TG3).  Cox Media’s David Siegler continues to guide the Implementation Team for ATSC 2.0 and I expect that we’ll see demonstrations of ATSC 2.0’s functionality at this spring’s NAB Show.

We also thank the Mobile-EAS Implementation Team, under the leadership of Jay Adrick, for continuing to press forward with this important enhancement to public safety.

The eventual move to “ATSC 3.0,” with its greater capacity for Ultra HD transmission and other enhancements generated a lot of interest from companies throughout the world in 2013.  We salute Jim Kutzner for his steady leadership of TG3, and wish him all the best as he retires from PBS and the ATSC board next month.

No doubt the many thousands of attendees at the 2014 International CES in a few days will get an eyeful of Ultra HDTV.  The conversation will surely turn next to how consumers will receive those beautiful pictures and what role local broadcasters should and will play.

In short, we’ve had great success attracting the world’s most brilliant technical minds to our efforts.  Our success will be determined by the continued deep involvement of our members.

As we prepare the future of TV broadcasting, it’s also clear that we need to engage with more people who play critical roles in member companies.  We need marketers to understand the benefits of what this new technologies can deliver.  We need station management to understand, endorse, and deploy the full capabilities of both ATSC 2.0 and what ATSC 3.0 will bring.

Educating, informing, and cajoling those audiences will be part of our ATSC mission in 2014.  To involve more people will require “all hands on deck” in the coming year.

Thanks to everyone who has played a role in 2013, and we welcome your energy and involvement in the new year.

Mark Richer

President

Posted in ATSC News